1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for dispensing discs such as coins or medals from a storage hopper of a coin dispensing mechanism and more particularly to a device to control the direction of a dispensed disc.
2. Description of Related Art
An apparatus for dispensing discs from a disc passageway having an outlet wherein discs are arranged in an edge-to-edge manner for storage and dispensing is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,931,732. A closure member such as rotatable spherical member, can close the outlet and is capable of selectively applying force to the face of a disc in the region of the outlet to dispense the disc through a guide assembly. The disc can be selectively diverted to one or the other side of the passageway. Problems can occur in that a disc can become wedged between an opening lower edge and a detecting member as the disc is pushed downwards by the detecting member. Thus, a disc that has jammed can be pushed through a diverting passageway with the subsequent disc, and the passageway can be obstructed by the pair of discs.
Other examples of the prior art can be found in the laid open Japanese Patent Application 8-293051 where the position of a guiding roller can be changed manually to be operative on either the left or right of a center line of the passageway.
There is still a desire in the prior art to provide an automatic dispensing of a disc which can be selectively dispensed to either side of a coin passageway. Preferably such a device should be relatively compact and inexpensive.